Case Analysis · Argentina · Lithium · DLE · Project Execution
Eramet Centenario Lithium Plant: DLE Ramp-Up and Supplier Lessons
Centenario is one of the first industrial-scale Direct Lithium Extraction plants. After producing 6,690 t-LCE in 2025, it delivered 3,720 t-LCE in Q1 2026. The latest operating data show how downstream equipment, gas supply, commissioning, altitude and documentation determine whether design capacity becomes stable production.
Centenario is a commercial DLE operation whose 2025 performance demonstrates the difference between functioning extraction technology and a fully integrated production plant.
Eramet reported that the first half of 2025 was hampered by a technical issue during commissioning of the Forced Evaporation equipment. Production recovered in the second half, reached close to 75% of daily nameplate capacity in December and totalled 6,690 t-LCE for the year.
Q1 2026 added a new operating test. Centenario produced 3,720 t-LCE and sold 3,920 t-LCE. January and March ran close to 80% of nameplate capacity, while February was affected by a gas-supply limitation and a planned extended shutdown to improve the design of downstream equipment.
The public record supports a case about commissioning, utilities and process-integration risk. It does not identify a named supplier or prove a supplier-side design fault.
For the wider market structure, see Econosur’s Lithium and Mining industry overview, Lithium in Argentina and Chile and the analysis of why lithium is not one market.
Core case reading:
The defining risk at Centenario was not whether lithium could be captured from brine. It was whether extraction, purification, evaporation, reagents, utilities, control systems, logistics and commissioning could operate as one stable production system at 4,000 metres.
What Is the Centenario Plant?
Centenario is Eramet’s lithium operation on the Salar de Centenario-Ratones in Salta Province, Argentina. The plant was commissioned in July 2024, delivered its first lithium carbonate at the end of that year and is designed to produce 24,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent annually at full capacity.
The project uses a Direct Lithium Extraction process developed by Eramet over a decade of research and tested for five years at an on-site pilot plant. Eramet reports a lithium extraction yield of around 90%, approximately twice less brine pumped than a conventional extraction process and recycling of 60% of the water used in the process.
The company describes a production cycle of roughly one week, compared with 12 to 18 months for traditional natural evaporation. That speed advantage does not eliminate downstream processing. Extracted lithium still has to move through concentration, purification and conversion stages before saleable lithium carbonate leaves the plant.
Ownership, Buyers and Market Role
Centenario was developed with Tsingshan as a 49.9% partner. In October 2024, Eramet acquired Tsingshan’s interest for US$699 million and became sole owner of the project. Full ownership gave Eramet control over the operating ramp-up and future expansion decisions, while concentrating the financial and execution exposure inside the group.
The plant remained in a capital-intensive ramp-up phase during 2025. The commercially stronger indicator is the relationship between production, sales and operating stability rather than a single annual financial figure.
Eramet sold 5,420 t-LCE in 2025, including 4,900 tonnes in the second half, primarily to cathode active material producers in China. Q1 2026 sales reached 3,920 t-LCE, again primarily to Chinese CAM producers. The plant is often framed as a European strategic-supply asset, but its first commercial flows have been tied mainly to the Chinese battery-material chain.
Centenario is a European-owned lithium asset in Argentina whose first reported commercial sales flowed primarily into China’s cathode-material system.
What Happened During the 2025 Ramp-Up?
The first half of 2025 was affected by a technical issue during commissioning of the Forced Evaporation equipment. Eramet reduced its full-year production target in July to between 4 and 7 kt-LCE after the delay.
Performance improved sharply in the second half. Production rose from around 10% of daily nameplate capacity in June to close to 75% in December. Full-year output reached 6,690 t-LCE, of which 5,980 tonnes were produced in the second half.
Centenario Phase 1 is commissioned at the Salar de Centenario-Ratones.
Eramet acquires Tsingshan’s 49.9% interest and becomes sole owner.
The plant delivers its first lithium carbonate production.
A technical issue delays commissioning of the Forced Evaporation equipment.
Daily output is around 10% of nameplate capacity.
Daily output reaches close to 75% of nameplate capacity.
Production runs close to 80% of nameplate capacity.
A gas-supply limitation and a planned extended shutdown reduce output while the design of downstream equipment is improved.
Production returns to close to 80% of nameplate capacity.
Centenario produces 3,720 t-LCE and sells 3,920 t-LCE, primarily to CAM producers in China.
Production guidance remains 17–20 kt-LCE, with capacity expected to approach 100% by year-end.
What Q1 2026 Adds to the Case
The first quarter of 2026 confirms that the 2025 ramp-up problem was not the end of the operating story. Centenario produced 3,720 t-LCE and sold 3,920 t-LCE during the quarter. Production in January and March was close to 80% of nameplate capacity.
February was weaker for two distinct reasons. A limitation in gas supply constrained operations, and Eramet carried out a planned extended shutdown to improve the design of downstream equipment. This is commercially important because it broadens the case beyond one commissioning event. Plant performance depends on external utilities and on the continuing optimisation of downstream process equipment.
Updated market reading:
Centenario is progressing, but Q1 2026 shows that stable nameplate operation still depends on downstream-equipment improvements and reliable gas supply. The current case is no longer only about commissioning. It is about the transition from an improving plant to a resilient production system.
What the Public Record Proves — and What It Does Not
Proven: Eramet reported a technical issue during commissioning of the Forced Evaporation equipment in 2025. In Q1 2026, the company reported a gas-supply limitation and a planned extended shutdown to improve the design of downstream equipment.
Not proven in the reviewed public disclosures: that a named external supplier caused either issue, that the 2025 problem was a supplier-side design fault or that one individual equipment provider was responsible for the wider ramp-up.
The commercially useful conclusion is narrower and stronger: a plant can validate its extraction principle while still encountering serious integration, utilities and downstream-equipment problems elsewhere in the production chain.
This distinction matters for supplier intelligence. Procurement risk cannot be assigned from a general corporate disclosure unless the company identifies the responsible equipment package, contractor or failure mechanism. The evidence supports an analysis of equipment commissioning and process integration, not an accusation against an unnamed supplier.
Why Does High Altitude Change Project Execution?
Centenario operates at approximately 4,000 metres in a remote part of the Andean highlands. Eramet identifies altitude, extreme weather, logistics, missing infrastructure and an international equipment supply chain as core project-execution challenges.
High altitude changes combustion, cooling, pressure relationships, electrical performance, human work capacity and maintenance planning. Extreme aridity and temperature variation affect seals, materials, instrumentation and storage. Long supply routes increase the cost of spare parts, corrective work and specialist deployment.
These conditions do not prove that every standard industrial component will fail. They change the qualification requirement. Equipment has to be evaluated as part of the site, process and maintenance system in which it will operate.
Water, Communities and Assurance
Eramet reports that Centenario recycles 60% of the water used in its DLE process and pumps approximately twice less brine than a conventional extraction process. The company is modelling the direct reinjection of depleted brine into the salar’s aquifers as part of further environmental improvement work.
The reinjection point should be read carefully. It is a development and modelling area, not evidence that full-scale direct reinjection is already a routine operating feature of the plant.
Eramet states that free, prior and informed consent was obtained from local communities in February 2020 under the framework of ILO Convention 169. The company also reports that Eramine completed an IRMA self-assessment and is preparing to enter the independent audit process.
For suppliers, responsible-mining assurance affects the information package around equipment and services. Material data, maintenance records, safety instructions, water monitoring, performance evidence and change documentation can become part of project assurance rather than administrative paperwork.
Where Are the Supplier Opportunities?
Centenario does not create one generic “lithium supplier market.” It creates a set of technically distinct needs around plant stability, process control, water, maintenance, logistics and documentation.
- Forced evaporation, concentration and crystallisation equipment
- Process-control systems, sensors and industrial automation
- Water-balance monitoring, hydrological measurement and simulation
- Pumps, valves, seals, filtration and corrosion-resistant components
- Reagent optimisation and process-efficiency services
- Gas, power and utility-reliability planning for continuous process operations
- Remote diagnostics combined with field-service capability
- Critical-spares planning and high-altitude logistics
- Safety manuals, operating procedures and technical training
- Audit-ready technical, environmental and maintenance documentation
International suppliers still need to identify the relevant operating company, engineering package, decision-maker, qualification process and local service route. VolzMarketing provides a related international B2B visibility and market-access service for companies entering Mercosur markets.
Technical documentation also belongs to the delivered system. eLengua supports product manuals and multilingual technical documentation for industrial equipment, safety, operation, training and maintenance workflows.
What Comes Next for Centenario?
Eramet maintained production guidance of 17–20 kt-LCE for 2026 after the first quarter and continues to target close to full nameplate capacity by year-end. Under its ReSolution programme, the group is also targeting an ex-works cash cost of US$5,400–5,800 per tonne at nameplate capacity during 2026–2027, based on 2025 economic conditions.
The wider salar has an estimated production potential above 75 kt-LCE per year. Eramet is studying expansion of the existing southern plant and retains an option for a new northern plant. Expansion is no longer only a resource question. It sits inside a group-wide priority to reduce leverage, control capital expenditure and restore positive cash generation.
Q1 2026 improves confidence in the ramp-up because January and March operated close to 80% of capacity. It also reveals the next threshold: Centenario must reduce the effect of utility constraints, complete downstream-equipment improvements and convert intermittent high performance into sustained annual output.
Market Reality: Centenario has moved beyond pilot status. Q1 2026 production shows material progress, while the February gas limitation and downstream-equipment shutdown show that stable nameplate operation has not yet been achieved.
Visibility: The project is internationally visible as a DLE milestone. Less visible are the forced-evaporation bottleneck, the February 2026 gas constraint, ongoing downstream-equipment optimisation and the concentration of sales in China.
Human Interpretation: The supplier opportunity is strongest where technical performance, commissioning support, local service capacity and auditable documentation meet. Selling a component without that operating layer leaves the main project risk unresolved.
This project case sits inside Econosur’s Lithium and Mining industry overview. The market comparison is developed in Lithium in Argentina and Chile and Lithium is not one market.
For country context, see the Argentina market profile and Argentina market insights.
- Eramet — Lithium and Centenario project information: 24 kt-LCE capacity, 6.7 kt production in 2025, DLE performance, water recycling, altitude, communities and IRMA process.
- Eramet — 2025 full-year results: production, sales, buyers, 75% December capacity, 2026 guidance, costs and expansion options.
- Eramet — First-quarter 2026 turnover and operations update, 23 April 2026: 3,720 t-LCE production, 3,920 t-LCE sales, close to 80% capacity in January and March, February gas-supply limitation, planned extended shutdown and unchanged 17–20 kt guidance.
- Eramet — H1 2025 results: delayed commissioning of the Forced Evaporation unit and revised production target.
- Reuters — Eramet acquires Tsingshan’s Centenario stake: US$699 million transaction and full ownership.
- Argentina SIACAM: official mining indicators, reports and national project context.
- Search and AI observation: coverage often freezes the case at the 2025 commissioning delay. Q1 2026 materially changes the picture by showing higher output alongside a gas constraint and continued downstream-equipment optimisation.
- Econosur analysis updated 13 July 2026.
From project headlines to operating reality
Centenario connects ownership, DLE, commissioning, buyers, water, high-altitude logistics, supplier qualification and financial execution. A useful project analysis has to separate proven production, design capacity, public company statements and inferences about the supply chain.
Econosur prepares custom analysis and company reports for businesses, investors and institutions evaluating South American lithium projects, operators, suppliers, market access and execution risk.
Explore Custom Market AnalysisFrequently Asked Questions
What is the Eramet Centenario lithium plant?
Centenario is Eramet’s lithium carbonate plant on the Salar de Centenario-Ratones in Salta, Argentina. It uses Direct Lithium Extraction and has a design capacity of 24,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent per year.
What happened during the Centenario ramp-up in 2025?
Eramet reported that the first half of 2025 was hampered by a technical issue during commissioning of the Forced Evaporation equipment. Production recovered in the second half and reached close to 75% of daily nameplate capacity in December.
Was the problem proven to be a supplier design fault?
No public Eramet disclosure reviewed for this analysis identifies a named supplier or describes the issue as a supplier-side design fault. The official description is a technical issue during commissioning of the Forced Evaporation equipment.
How much lithium did Centenario produce in 2025?
Centenario produced 6,690 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent in 2025, including 5,980 tonnes in the second half. Reported sales reached 5,420 tonnes.
What is Eramet’s 2026 production target?
Eramet guides for production of 17,000 to 20,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent in 2026 and aims to reach close to full nameplate capacity by the end of the year.
What happened at Centenario in Q1 2026?
Centenario produced 3,720 t-LCE and sold 3,920 t-LCE. Production was close to 80% of nameplate capacity in January and March. February was affected by a gas-supply limitation and a planned extended shutdown to improve the design of downstream equipment.
What should industrial suppliers learn from Centenario?
Equipment has to be evaluated as part of an integrated high-altitude production system. Commissioning support, field service, critical spares, gas and utility dependencies, documentation, water monitoring and performance under remote Andean conditions are part of the delivered product.
